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Submitted by
MrAcoustat
a AudioPhile

Date Reviewed: November 21, 2012

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Hi my name is Andre MrAcoustat Sevigny i belong to the Acoustat proud owners club here in Quebec Canada i have been an Acoustat owner for more than 28 years Spectra 22s - Spectra 33s - Model 2+2s - and three pairs of Model 1+1s this is what i own now a very special pair with 2x3 metal frame & base covered with wood they are 14x94 inches and weigh 200 pounds the making of these speakers can be seen in my Flickr Photo Galery with other nice photos.

Okay, they are huge and some say ugly. I love these so much that when my wife wanted me to lose them I countered with a statement indicating that I would lose her before I would give up the 2+2's. Before suround sound, I wanted really loud stereo mains so I put a capacitor in the hot lead of the speaker wire and eliminated the bass frequencies below 200 cycles (if I am remembering correctly). They screamed so loudly you could not think and I simply added an M&K powered 12" front loaded subwoofer to compensate. It was awesome and people still talk about that setup ten years later.

Today, powered by a Yamaha RXV-1 suround receiver, these are the mains in a surround system and I was lucky enough to be given a flawless set of vintage JBL 4311 12" 3 way (reference standard) speakers which I use as rear speakers (and for earth shaking 4 speaker stereo) The M&K subwoofer remains the best bass I've ever heard and has been totally reliable as have the Acoustats with medalion transformers. One problem is that the JBL's were so much more efficient that they tended to overpower the 2+2's. I interfaced separate graphic equalizers on every channel so I could really fine tune sound AND VOLUME levels for each individual channel. Once you get it tweaked, it is pretty much set and forget it but the effort was totally worth it. This setup with the capacitors in the hot leads on the 2+2's along with individual channel equalization and lots of power has yielded a system that leaves everyone who has heard it speachless - and the rock and rollers rather deaf!

I am now trying to figure out how to have these buried with me when I die. I figure that even if I should unfortunately go to hell, I'll be in heaven with my Acoustat 2+2's!

This review is for Acoustat model Spectra 22. I purchased it on Ebay recently for a song, and primarily because they guy lived in a very out of the way place and no one within 1000 miles would drive there go them. I did. The drive was not fun but well worth it. I first fell in love with Acoustats from listening to a pair of 2+2's that my friend's father owns.

Anwyay these are an incredible value. You don't seem to hear much about them but they were rated a Class B recommend component in a 1990 stereophile review - I have a copy of it. Very impressive actually. They are not prone appearantly to a lot of the limitations of previous designs or manufacturers but were only manufactured for a short time due to Rockford getting out of the 'Stat' business. Anyay the sound of these things is truly breathtaking. They have an accompanying woofer with 4 cones (its really big, weighs 75 pounds) and I haven't even bothered to hook it up yet - these sounds so smooth without it. For years listening to standard dynamic speakers I have always been able to sense a sort of incoherence in music, especially in complicated passages - where I seem to have to strain to follow the instruments - not at all like live performance. I suppose that might be due to the crossovers? In any case I immediately noticed these things to be completely pure, devoid of phases incongruetities and downright beautiful. I currently don't have an amp strong enough to power them to sufficient levels but so far they have had no trouble playing even at fairly loud levels with no strain. I downright love these things - they are shockingly absolutely shockingly realistic in their resolution of all frequency ranges. In my opinion these works of art and science don't get enough press. There is so much more to say about these but I just don't have the time. I could go on and on. They have revolutionized my enjoyment of music.

I bought Acoustat Spectra 66 from an ex Acoustat Dealer in Jakarta in a very good condition in 2002.This magnificent loudsdpeaker was produced by Rockport in 1989. We still can buy this loudspeaker in used condition (look at audiocircuit.com). Acoustat Spectra 66 or 6600 is a full range electrostatic loudspeaker with 6 panels in each speaker, 2 panels for high and mid, and the rest for the bass. The dimension of this speaker is 8ft height, 3ft wide and 4in thick,the same with Acoustat 2+2, rather ugly and difficult to match with our room. But, if you have a good system to drive this speaker, it will produce a very natural, clean, and transparant sound with a wide, deep, and magnificent sound stage, without hurting your ears. The bass is deep enough for an electrostatic loudspeaker, althought is not as tight as Revel Ultima Studio. I have compared directly this loudspeaker to B&W N802 and Revel Ultima Studio. Acoustat is still the best for naturalness in the mid and high freq. range. Revel is the best box loudspeaker in the market today, and has mid&high freq. near Acoustat, but Acoustat still more natural than Revel, although Revel is more detail.
I use NAD S200 to power this Acoustat and still try to upgrade it.